Adjusting mechanism of removing heavy article

ABSTRACT

A mechanism for moving heavy articles such as blocks for use in constructing vessels, buildings or the like, for example, both vertically and horizontally by means of a vertically moveable jack for supporting the heavy article and slideable on a base and hydraulic cylinders connected to said jack and said base, capable of moving said jack laterally over said base.

United States Patent Shigeno et a].

ADJUSTING MECHANISM OF REMOVING HEAVY ARTICLE Inventors: Shuichi Shigeno, Sakura; Masayoshi Ishii, Gifu, both of Japan Assignees: Kayaba Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha;

Nihon Koki Kabushiki Kaisha, Minata-ku, Tokyo; Nippon Kokan Kabushiki Kaisha, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan Filed: Dec. 30, 1971 Appl. No.: 214,1 14

U.S. Cl 214/1 R, 254/84, 214/670 Int. Cl B66f 3/24 Field of Search 214/1 R, 1 CM, 1 H,

References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS Arnold 214/138 R X Primary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant ExaminerFrank E. Werner AttorneyLinton & Linton [5 7 ABSTRACT A mechanism for moving heavy articles such as blocks for use in constructing vessels, buildings or the like, for example, both vertically and horizontally by means of a vertically moveable jack for supporting the heavy article and slideable on a base and hydraulic cylinders connected to said jack and said base, capable of moving said jack laterally over said base.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PAIENIED an: 18 can I 3; 779 .399 saw 1 or 4 FIE I INVENTORS Hl/ICH/ SH/GENO 4M9 RSAYOSHI ISHI/ BY Ma ATTORNEY PATENIEBBEB18 ma 3.779.399 sum 2 or 4 INVENTORS SHUICHI SHIGENO AND MQSAYOSH I ISHII ATTORNEYS PAIENIEDBEC 18 I975 $779,399 SHEET 3n; 4

BY M M K ATTORNEY S PATENTEU 1H 18 I975 3.779.399 SHEET l BF 4 COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION X I x A. x 0.0/0- I A 0 NO LUBRICANT LUBRICANT OIL A GREASE '-'-START|N|G MOVING 70 /40 2/0 280 Kg/cmz FACE PRESSURE INVENTORS SHU/CHl SH/GENO A no MASHYOSHI ISHII ATTORNEYS ADJUSTING MECHANISM OF REMOVING HEAVY ARTICLE This invention relates to an adjusting mechanism of removing heavy article and more particularly to an improvement of hydraulic jack equipment.

It is well known that many difficulties lie in removing buildings and houses accompanied by a street improvement or placing hull blocks with objects, which are caused by those of heavy weight. In the above cases, it is an ordinary work that many rollers are inserted beneath the heavy article lifted by jack and then said article is removed by winch or Goliath crane or the like is employed to remove said heavy article. According to many experiences, there are shown the following defects in the above operations.

In a case of the removal of a heavy article by roller and winch, said article tends to naturally move against the operators intention, since there is no fixed point to limit the removal of said article. Consequently, it is needless to say that said work is very inefficient because slow and careful operations are required. In another case of the removal of said article by crane, its dimension and weight should be limited depending upon the capacity of said crane. It is difficult to keep said heavy article in a proper manner while the lifted article is unsteady. Accordingly the operations of placing said article with the object become troublesome and require a long time.

Thus, a stable equipment and mechanism capable of removing heavy article has not yet been present. This invention has been developed to solve the above diffi culties. The features of this invention lie in that the unit of hydraulic jack has a removable mechanism to horizontal direction, two hydraulic cylinders of said unit being arranged to said jack as at right angles to each other and one of said cylinders is capable of turning when another is locked.

An object of this invention is to provide an adjusting mechanism of removing heavy article which is capable of placing said article, e.g., a hull block, with object stable and exact.

Another object of this invention is to provide an adjusting mechanism of removing heavy article that the removing of said article is possible to be dealt with under non-troublesome state and for a short time.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent with the following description and accompanying drawings in which;

FIG. 1 is a front view including partial section of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of this invention;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of hydraulic circuit in this invention; and

FIG. 4 illustrates a relation between coefficient of friction and face pressure which is concerned with the removal of hydraulic jack of this invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 there is shown an embodiment of this invention. This unit comprises a base 1, a hydraulic jack 2 provided on said base 1 and two hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 for horizontal removal of said jack 2. The above jack 2 acts upward or downward as working fluid is charged and then discharged. If a heavy article is placed on said jack, the height of said article is possible to be easily adjusted. The jack as shown in the accompanying drawings is a double acting type which acts, depending upon the selective charging of said working fluid into upper or lower chamber of said jack. However, in this invention, not only the above double acting type hydraulic jack but also that of single type, e.g., ram-driving mechanism, are possible to be employed. Further, said jack 2 is placed on a plate 6 as stainless steel through a low friction material, e.g., Teflon, which is fixed to the bottom face of said jack and acts as a sliding material 5. Depending upon such means, said jack 2 is capable of removal to each direction. In such a case, said plate 6 fixed to the base 1 should be polished to a lower coefficient of friction.

The above-mentioned hydraulic cylinders 3 and 4 are a double-acting type and are supported with bearing devices comprising bearing stands 7, 8 fixed to said base 1, and trunnion 9, 10 which are capable of turning to a horizontal direction. The piston rods ll 1, 12 of said cylinder 3, 4 are supported with other bearing devices comprising bearing stands 13, 14 fixed to said jack 2 and shaft 15, 16 repectively and connected to said jack 2. In such devices, it should be noted that a pin 17 is inserted into the bearing device of the piston rod 11 to restain the turning of said rod 11 while the piston rod 12 is freely turned.

The above-mentioned enbodiment is one example of the mechanism based on this invention and an example of hydraulic driving system is shown in FIG. 3. The composition of said system and the function of each of the components are as follows:

Numeral 18 is a hydraulic pump and 19 is a power source for said pump 18. Numeral 20 is a reservoir and 21 is a solenoid valve for selective hydraulic feed from said pump 13 and said reservoir 20 to separative chamber a or b of said jack 2. Numeral 22 is a holding valve keeping said jack 2 at the required height. Numeral 23 is a counter-balance valve for controlling descend speed of said jack 2 by means of the parallel combination of a check valve 24 and variable throttle 25. Numeral 26 is a unit of replenishing valve, which is surrounded by a dot-dash line, for adjusting overload added to said jack 2. Numeral 27 is a flow control valve for flow rate fed from said hydraulic pump 18. Numerals 28, 29 are solenoid valve for making it selective continuity from said pump 18 to front chambers c, e of said cylinders 3, 4 respectively, and 30 is another solenoid valve for making it continuity to rear chambers d, f of said cylinders 3, 4. The motion of said hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 is possible to be obtained easily and stably. Numerals 31, 32 are manual change-over valves for locking said cylinders 3, 4 respectively. Numeral 33 is a main relief valve and 34 is a solenoid valve for the unloading of said main relief valve 33. Numeral 35 is a pressure-holding valve of return circuit. I

A plurality of the unit as mentioned above may be employed as a set connected to each other. There is shown an example in FIG. 3, that is, a set of four units shown by the surrounding two dot-dash line. In such a case, these added units are sufficient to be connected to the base unit as mentioned above by branches arranged at w, x, y and z points respectively.

Speaking in detail about the adjusting function of the mechanism as mentioned above, first, after the solenoid valve 3 is changed over from the state as shown in FIG. 3 to left side position and said rear chambers c, e are in continuity state to said reservoir 20 through said manual change-over valves 31, 32, said solenoid valve 30 and pressure holding valve 35, when said solenoid valve 28 or 29 is changed over to left side position said working fluid is charged from said hydraulic pump 18 to said front chamber d orfthrough said solenoid valve 28 or 29 and said manual change-over valve 31 or 32 respectively. And then, said hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 draw up said hydraulic jack 2 as the above solenoid valves 28, 29 are selectively changed over. Conversely, when said solenoid valve 28 or 29 are changed over to right side position, the front chamber d orfof said cylinder 3 or 4 is in continuity state to said reservoir through said manual change-over valve 31 or 32, said solenoid valve 28 or 29 and pressure holding valve 35 as the state of said rear chambers c and e. With the above action, the pressure set by said pressure holding valve 35 is added to these chambers c, d or e, f. Such pressure produces a thrust for the pushing-away direction depending upon the difference of pressure receiving area. Thus, the hydraulic jack 2 is removed to the center of said plate 6 by the pushing-away of said cylinder 3 or 4 and then when said solenoid valves 28, 29 are returned to center position and said solenoid valve is changed over to right side position, said cylinders 3, 4 may be locked and said jack 2 may be kept to the center of said plate 2. In such a case, it should be noted that the position of said jack 2 may be readjusted with ease by reason of which the turning of said cylinder 3 to said jack 2 is restrained as mentioned above.

When the position of the hydraulic jack 2 is readjusted to the center of said plate 6, a heavy article is fitted to said jack 2 or loaded on said jack 2 and adjusting operations start. Now, if the solenoid valve 21 is changed over to left side position, working fluid is charged into the lower chamber b of said jack 2 from said hydraulic pump 18 through said solenoid valve 21, said holding valve 22 and said check valve 24 of counter-balance device 23, while the working fluid charged into the upper chamber a of said jack 2 is pushed back to said reservoir 20 through said solenoid valve 21 and pressure holding valve 35. With such actions, said jack 2 ascends and said heavy article is pushed up. Conversely, if said solenoid valve 21 is changed over to the right position, the working fluid is charged into the upper chamber a from said pump 18 simultaneously, and said holding valve 22 is pushed open by the above pressure. By the continuity of said holding valve 22 said working fluid is pushed back into said reservoir 20 through said variable throttle 25 of the counter-balance device, said holding valve 22, said solenoid valve 21 and said pressure holding valve 35. In such a case, the pushing-back speed of said working fluid is determined in proportion to the open rate of said variable throttle 25 and then the descending speed of said jack 2 is settled. 1f the action of said jack 2 is neither ascending nor descending, the required height of said heavy article may be obtained with ease and the locking of said article at said height may be surely achieved by the changing over of said solenoid valve 21.

The horizontal removing operations of said jack 2 is as follows. (In the later-mentioned description, the same numeral as cited in the base unit B will be utilized as it is.) That is, when the removing direction of said jack 2 is as shown with white arrow in FIG. 3, first, the hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 of the hydraulic jack unit A are surely locked. Secondary, each of the solenoid valves 28, 29 of said units C and D is changed over to the right side position and each solenoid valve 3 is changed over to the left side position. With such operation, each of the separative chambers c, d, e and f of the hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 is in continuity state to the reservoir 20.

Thirdly, the solenoid valve 28 of said unit B is changed over to the right side position and simultaneously the solenoid valve 3 is changed over to the left side position. With such operations, the separative chambers c, d of said cylinder 3 is in continuity state to the reservoir 20. When the set of the hydraulic unit is operated as mentioned above, it will be well understood that the removing of unit A is restrained by which the hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 are locked and each of the hydraulic jacks 2 is in removable state. In such a state of said set, each of said cylinders 3, 4 of said units B, C and D will receive a back pressure depending upon the setting of said pressure holding valve 35, and will produce a thrust corresponding to the difference of receiving area, while each of seprative chambers c, d, e and fis in continuity state to said reservoir 20. It will be, however, understood at once that such thrust has no ability to push away a loading jack because said thrust is low and is capable of merely pushing away no-loading jack.

And then, if said solenoid valve 29 of said unit B is changed over to the left side position, the working fluid from said reservoir 20 is charged into said front chamber f of said cylinder 4 through said solenoid valve 29 and manual change-over valve 32. Said jack 2 is drawn up with the above operations. As a result, the heavy article starts to turn for clockwise direction at the supporting point of said unit A.

In the above-mentioned mechanism, it is thought that the same force of removing said base 1 together with said cylinder 4 as the removing force of said jack 2 for the left with the action of said cylinder 4 produced as a reaction. it is, however, as mentioned above that a low friction material, e.g., Teflon, is fixed to the bottom face of said jack 2 in this invention and said jack 2 is arranged on the base 1 through a polished plate, e.g., stainless steel. in such composition, it is confirmed that the static and dynamic coefficient of friction between said jack and said base are very small as shown in FIG. 4. That is, said coefficient p, in case of 7Okg/cm to 280kg/cm face pressure is as follows;

no lubricant, 0.0295 to 0.0165

lubricating oil, 0.0205 to 0.0105

grease, y. 0.0l to 0.008 On the other hand, it is well known that the coefficient of friction between said base, which is generally made of cast steel, and the floor, which is ordinarily made of concrete, is more than 0.5. Owing to the difference of the above-mentioned coefficient, the removal of said jack 2 is possible to be easily achieved without any removal of said base 1. It will be, moreover, thought that the piston rod 11 of said cylinder 3 in said unit A is subjected to a large bending force brought about with the friction force, which occurs by the turning of said piston, because of the rotating force of said jack 2 accompanying the turning of said heavy article. However, said rotating force may be easily absorbed by means of inserting bearing parts between said piston rod and supporting head of said jack.

The removal of said article for said white arrow direction also may be easily achieved by another operation. That is, first, said hydraulic cylinders 3, 4 of said unit B are locked by the closing of said manual changeover valves 31, 32. Accordingly, the removal of said jack 2 is restrained. Secondary, together with the opening of the manual change-over valves 31, 32 of said unit A the solenoid valve 28 of the same circuit is changed over to the right side position and the solenoid valve 30 is changed over to the left side position. Thirdly, the solenoid valve 29 of the same circuit is changed over to the left position. With such operations, the working fluid is charged into the front chamber f and said jack 2 is drawn up for the left. As a result, said heavy article starts to turn to counterclockwise direction which is the white arrow direction. r

Now, when each of the said manual change-over valves 31, 32 is closed, each of said jacks in said units A, B, C and D is closed and the removal of said heavy article is stopped and maintained at the position.

Thus, all of the removal of said heavy article for the black arrow direction as shown in FIG. 3, or for the opposite direction may be easily achieved by means of locking one of said units A, B, C and D. The operations is sufficient to be dealt with as mentioned above. It will be needless to say that the details are described again.

According to this invention mechanism, the removal of a heavy article, e.g., hull block, may be achieved and adjusted to the required height and position with ease and stability.

What is claimed is:

l. A mechanism for moving heavy articles compris- 5 jack, piston rods each extending from one of said cylinders towards said jack, hinged means connecting each of said piston rods to said jack and locking means in one of said hinged means capable of preventing the turning of the connected one of said piston rods relative to said jack.

2. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including trunnions extending from each of said cylinders normal to said base and means pivotally supporting said trunnions on said base.

3. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including a material having a low coefficient of friction fixed to the bottom of said jack, and a polished plate mounted on said base and having said material slideably positioned thereon.

4. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including means for blocking the movements of said piston rods when desired. 

1. A mechanism for moving heavy articles comprising a base, a jack slideably mounted in an upright position on said base, a pair of hydraulic cylinders pivotally mounted on said base and extending parallel to said base, perpendicular to each other and radially of said jack, piston rods each extending from one of said cylinders towards said jack, hinged means connecting each of said piston rods to said jack and locking means in one of said hinged means capable of preventing the turning of the connected one of said piston rods relative to said jack.
 2. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including trunnions extending from each of said cylinders normal to said base and means pivotally supporting said trunnions on said base.
 3. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including a material having a low coefficient of friction fixed to the bottom of said jack, and a polished plate mounted on said base and having said material slideably positioned thereon.
 4. A mechanism for moving heavy articles as claimed in claim 1, including means for blocking the movements of said piston rods when desired. 